Rules

Hey! Important Server Information! This is information used by Admins on-server! Please make sure to read these contents and understand them; ignorance is not an excuse!

Looking for Standard Operating Procedure or other in-character policies? Check Jobs for a comprehensive list of roles (including Antagonists) and our policies regarding them, or Space Law for a list of all in-character crimes and the Guide to Security.

Bubberstation Rules

Authored by Dr. Fragenstien#5867, Nut#6378, Floof Ball#0798, Snaffle15 and Bangle

For past and present headmin rulings, see Headmin Rulings.

OOC Conduct Rules

Core Rule 0: Discretion and Intervention Rule

All rules are to be followed to the spirit, not the letter. Enforcement of these rules is at the discretion of admins. In-game administration rulings are final. Admins are accountable for any consequences if they use this rule. Admins are also allowed to intervene in rounds when it is in the best interest of the playerbase.

If you regularly come close to breaking the rules without actually breaking them, it will be treated as if the rules were broken.

Core Rule 1: Mutual Respect Rule

Don't be a dick. Show respect to everyone, regardless of their origin, beliefs, kinks or identity. We're all here to have fun, and this community is to be a positive space, so keep that atmosphere when playing here. Hate speech, harassment, or otherwise abusive/toxic behavior is not allowed. Going out of your way to seriously negatively impact or end the round for someone with little IC justification is against the rules.

Core Rule 2: Mis/Metacommunications Rule

Avoid metagaming. This includes:

• utilizing information that your character wouldn't naturally possess within reasonable limits.
• assuming the intentions or goals of any antagonists or enemy players without witnessing them or being informed in-round.
• Actively communicating with others players OOC about the events of the round, whether on the server or on any other server, during that round. This does not include plans to join games together, or talk in-character, particularly if they do not have negative consequences.

This is one of the only rules on Bubberstation that enforces on actions in other servers, be careful.

Core Rule 3: Misused Mechanics Rule

Deliberate abuse of unintended mechanics or exploits, outside the game or within it, to further your in-game means is considered to be an OOC rulebreak. This rule operates on good faith, namely, that there is interest in leveling the playing-field where appropriate to other players.

Additionally, it is against the rules to:

• Use ghost roles to significantly impact the station or raid ghost role areas. Any significant interaction between the station and ghost roles should be pre-approved by submitting an OPFOR request or contacting staff.
• Hide on the interlink to avoid consequences, such as Security hunting you, or an antagonist seeking to assassinate you.

Core Rule 4: Good Sportsmanship

Conflict is a core principle of Bubberstation’s roleplay; Suiciding or raging ("salting") because you got caught or converted is against the rules, and will result in administrative action.

Additionally, It is against the rules to respawn as the same (or very similar) character in the same round without permission from an admin. Looting people who are SSD before they are valid to be placed in cryogenic storage is against the rules, with exceptions allowed for things like antagonist objectives and station critical items like the nuclear authentication disk.

Not everything will always go as planned, and things may happen that you couldn’t predict or didn’t want to happen. We encourage players to play along in unexpected scenarios, but we can’t make people play when they don’t want to. If you find yourself converted to be an antag you didn’t want to play, you should LOOC your new “team” to let them know and cryo. Cryoing or ghosting over a simple brig sentence is considered bad form; it’s the risk you take when you play antag.

If you think that other players are forcing unreasonable punishments on your character, ahelp for a ruling.

Core Rule 5: OOC Forgiveness

This is a policy that extends across the rounds and is inherently integral to the life of round-to-round situations. It entails from harassing someone over OOC concerning their antagonist actions within the round to other failures. If a Doctor botches a surgery in one round and you refuse to be treated by them in another one, it isn't fair to that player to deny them the opportunity and hold something against them for the actions of a prior situation.

However, in the regards of antagonists, this means if an antagonist carries out actions against your character, you are not expected to remember this in future rounds. Such as the example of

• Antagonist Methods (An antagonist killed you with a trap, so in a future round, you see them setting up a similar trap so you immediately deduce from your out of character experience that they are an antagonist this round)
• Player Failures/Mistakes (Give fellow players the opportunity to correct themselves)

Special Rule: EORG

EORG (End of Round Grief) is essentially a deathmatch at the end of the round. This is only at the following times and areas:

• Central Command (the place the shuttle lands at)
• As soon as the 'round end' timer begins and credits begin to roll (not during any transit period).

EORG prepping to a severe extent is frowned upon: the difference being when you do it 30 seconds to a minute before landing, and just bringing things onboard to do it.

Roleplay Rules

Roleplay Rule 1: Storytellers

It is the responsibility and expectation of all players to create an ideal environment for roleplay, where players cooperate to create a fun and engaging story. Attempts must be made to preserve roleplay when possible. This means that you are in violation of this rule if you:

• Use OOC terms IC, even if it's sugar-coated ("Add me on the company Discord," ":3") or fail to properly separate IC and OOC chats,
• Violate the description of your character in roleplay (Also known as "breaking character,") for any reason, though exceptionally so if it is harmful to others,
• You have not put in minimum effort to create, and play, a character. This means that your flavor text needs to make a minimum attempt to describe your character; your OOC notes should make a reasonable effort to communicate your OOC preferences, and none of your character descriptions should contain memes, or references to them, in place of real description. Expect that if you have egregiously low-quality descriptions, admins may request you leave the round and re-write them in order to play.
• You must assume, at all times, that any interaction with another player is going to involve roleplay first and give them the space to do so. This is a blanket rule covering people interrupting/ruining roleplay situations.
• Any NSFW descriptions of your character should be contained entirely in NSFW Flavortext.
• You should make all efforts to ensure the station is not rendered uninhabitable, or majorly structurally compromised by your actions. If you're unsure about whether your chosen strategy will cause issues with regards to this rules, submit an ahelp.

Roleplay Rule 2: Intent and Escalation

Before ending roleplay and transitioning to combat mechanics, you are required to use either LOOC, an emote, or the Combat Indicator to indicate clearly that the situation will now be resolved with mechanical combat.

You do not have to wait after using the combat indicator to initiate combat, but do wait for at least 2 seconds if your opponent’s typing indicator is still up.

Note: The 2 seconds requirement is not rigid, it is a rule of thumb. The standard allowance for the requirement, if you need a number, is ±1/2 seconds.

• If any party involved calls for assistance from other players, attempts to flee without indication, or otherwise attempts to use this rule to gain an undue advantage in combat, that is a violation of this rule and repeat offenses may be handled administratively. If this happens, it can be considered an escalation and attacks can be thrown freely.
• This is a rule specifically against attacks with improper or low escalation that interrupt roleplay. Surprise/spontaneous attacks or ambushes are not permitted, unless at least one of the following criteria are met:
  1. You have strong IC justification to attack the player in the manner that you are (i.e. actively in danger, player poses clear and immediate threat, et cetera)
  2. The player is not roleplaying during the time of the ambush.

For admins: The way this is chiefly enforced is by checking the Speech Indicator log for the current round. If there was no indication beforehand, and the exceptional circumstances are not met, then there is a rulebreak.

If you do not wish to continue combat, you can use the ‘surrender’ verb, but do not hold it against anyone if it isn’t honored in the heat of the moment.

TBD: De-Escalation Policy

Roleplay Rule 3: Round Removal

Do not do anything that would prevent a player from playing the round as their character. This includes, but is not limited to:

• leaving their body unrecoverable,
• making drastic alterations to their character without their consent
• leaving them in a location they cannot reasonably escape or interact with any other characters.

Functional round-removal is still round-removal.

This rule does not apply if it is unreasonable to contain the character, such as antagonists who revive themselves, teleport, or have explosive implants, and Security Officers that keep rushing to fight after being revived; when in doubt, adminhelp for a ruling.

Roleplay Rule 4: Station Integrity

Unless directly related to your objectives, do not intentionally and excessively grief, or intentionally make the station generally uninhabitable, as an antagonist or otherwise.

Examples of this are:

• Plasma flooding distro
• Destruction greater in radius than a Syndicate Bomb or Maxcap
• Shocking all the doors as AI
• Putting a ridiculous amount of power in the electrical grid

Roleplay Rule 5: Believable Characters and Self-Antagonism

Your character must meet these standards:

• Be at least 18 years of age and physically and mentally mature
• Not be a copy or direct reference to an existing character in media or a real person.
• You may base your character’s species off of an existing character or species, but the species should be written to fit the setting.
• Should value their job, their life, and the lives and feelings of others at a believable level.

Avoid the use of netspeak, OOC mentions, and game-terms. Have in-game and in-character reasoning for the things that you do. When playing in conflict or opposition to others, such as by breaking Space Law as a non-antagonist, your actions should be believable of someone behaving in their workspace or community. If they aren't sufficiently believable, expect that you meet administrative action.

The reputation of characters should be an IC result of their IC actions, and personal OOC feelings or behavior should not be a factor in interactions. Essentially, treat people in-character based off of who they are in-character.

If you are displeased with the reputation your character has built with another character, it is recommended to communicate OOC and come to an understanding. You can ask an admin to help moderate this discussion.

Job Guides and Space Law are IC documents and violations should be handled IC where possible, but repeated violations, especially as command or to the detriment of others’ experience, can be punishable with a job or server ban. Problems with command staff not behaving in a reasonable manner should be treated OOCly if to a severe degree, as command staff are vital to station integrity and hold a lot of power over the crew.

Self-Antagonism

Self antagonism is where a player, that is not an antagonist, breaks Space Law or Standard Operating Procedure, effectively making themselves an antagonist by pitting themselves against the rest of the station. In order to do this, a player must have strong in-character reasoning to do so, or have an accepted OPFOR, otherwise they risk facing administrative action. Exceptions may be made at admins' discretion for cases that apply the Discretion and Intervention rule.

Roleplay Rule 6: Victory is Secondary

Playing with the sole intention of achieving/denying greentext (the victory condition for antags) is not allowed. Examples include:

• Powergaming (using, often breaking into, multiple departments in order to grant yourself obscene advantages, abusing excessively powerful gear, et cetera),
• Validhunting (Chasing antagonists as a role that is not meant to be doing so),
• Killing an antagonist on the shuttle right before it takes off so they do not achieve their escape objective.

Conflict with characters should be fueled by IC reasons that come through interaction and reacting to their actions, not solely because of their role or status as an antag.

ERP Rules

ERP Rule 1: By Moths, For Moths

Bubberstation allows players to roleplay sexual content alongside violence and disturbing themes in SS13. Players must acknowledge the possibility of encountering uncomfortable content. Kinkshaming is prohibited, and any observed rule-breaking should be reported to staff. Witch hunts are strictly forbidden; let admins handle investigations and punishments. Disable ghost ears and eyes if you wish to avoid seeing unwanted content. All scenes featuring non-con, dub-con, gore, vore, watersports, monsters, and scat must be filtered with Subtler Anti-Ghost. If you intend to RP a fetish beyond vanilla and are unsure where it falls, ahelp.

ERP Rule 2: Character Eligibility

To use a character in an erotic context, they must adhere to the following:

• Being that is sapient, and player controlled.
• Being able to communicate in some form.
• Being of sexual maturity for its species. All characters must be mature and over 18 years of age.
• Station Pets, such as Ian, Poly, Paperwork, etc, are not allowed.

ERP Rule 3: Closed Doors and Foul Deeds

ERP protections can be classified into 3 categories: Public, Private, and Protected.

• Public spaces have no protections against interruptions. ERP is allowed in Public spaces as long as it’s generally vanilla. Themes containing sexual violence, unsanitary fetishes, or niche interests considered uncomfortable by most are not allowed in Public spaces, including visibility to ghosts. Public spaces are considered anywhere that people are expected to be or need to be in, such as in departments, operating theaters, brig cells, or the SM engine.
• Private spaces are still a part of the station, and you are still considered to be a part of the round even in a Private space. If a scene in a Private space is intruded upon, they are expected to leave if asked unless they have IC justification to be there or interrupt. If your objective target is in a scene in a private space, you should ahelp to get a new target. Proper justification includes requiring someone in the scene or needing access to the space and waiting or finding an alternative is impossible. Be considerate to other players and avoid getting unrelated parties involved in uncomfortable subject matters. Private spaces are considered places that the average person has no reason to be, such as  windowless rooms that are locked, private offices with window shutters, abandoned rooms in maintenance halls, or remote places in space or lavaland.
• Protected spaces should never be intruded on under any circumstances. Protected spaces include private rooms on the Interlink, locked rooms in the Ghost cafe, and locked rooms in the hotel.

As a member of Command, you shouldn't leave the station's Z-levels in a non-emergency without clocking out and returning your job-specific equipment to your locker. This includes going to the Interlink. Failing to do so repeatedly, especially if it leads to the displacement of the nuclear authentication disk, will lead to administrative action.

As an Antagonist, once you leave the Interlink, you must ahelp for permission to return there. Using the Interlink to evade consequences is, again, not allowed. This rule cannot be used to metagame antagonists; attempting to ask an antagonist to go to the Interlink to catch them is right out.

Abusing these rules to harass people engaging in ERP or to avoid IC consequences for your actions is forbidden.

Reading through the rules before you whitelist? Check out our Guide to Whitelisting page for help filling out your application.

Frequently Asked Questions

What about [insert specific scenario here]?

The rules cannot possibly cover all possible scenarios. Like always, admins reserve the right to make rulings in the best interest of the server and its community. That said, it’s entirely possible that we missed something important! Always be asking questions, and if we see the same thing happen repeatedly, we can add that here as an example.

What counts as “IC justification” to interrupt an ERP scene?

First of all, if you’re not flexible enough to pivot if your ERP is interrupted you should take it to the interlink. The game will not stop for you if you’re on the station.

Now, what is and is not an okay justification? In general, you shouldn’t have an issue if you follow the guideline of “if you need someone or something in the space or the space itself and there are no alternatives” you’ll be fine. Here are a few examples:

Okay

• The supermatter is going critical, and the only person with engineering access is in a scene. You can drag them out to do their job.
• The beds are full in medbay and you need to use the operating theatre, but there’s a couple making out in there. You can kick them out.
• You’re a detective and you return to your office to a couple assistants making a “mess” in there. You can kick them out, or work around them, but you do not have to give up your office to them.

Ahelp

• You have a kill or theft objective but the room they’re in is being used for sexy time. Ahelp to get a new objective, or use wall peirce LOOC to check if they can be cool with your disruption

Not Okay

• Barging into a dorm because you “need to take a piss”
• Breaking into the HOS’s office while they’re in a scene to handle a single prisoner while the warden and other security is available.
• Remodeling a maint room people are hiding away in for their scene.